Guidance
by SecondAlternateLieutenant
Summary: Mako and Korra are about to be parents and they're bot anxious about it. One visit to the South Pole for some parental bonding makes a world of difference. Fluff. Makorra baby FLUFF.


"Will you calm down?"

"No."

Mako sighed and faced forward. He'd asked Korra that for the hundredth time on their journey, but she still wasn't calming down. His patience was wearing thing, but thank God they were finally near their destination. Normally, he'd be fine with how excited she was to be back in the South Pole, but he was worried for her.

Then again she was six months pregnant with his child; he had every right to be. "Korra."

"I want to see my mother." Korra replied firmly, one hand on the swell of their baby under her winter coat.

"It won't be long." Mako moved up behind her and put his arm around her waist. Surprisingly, she rested her head on his shoulder and stared at the icebergs in front of them. "A few more minutes and you'll see her."

"I miss her." He was stunned to see tears in her eyes. "I'm pregnant, so it's worse. She doesn't even know!" Korra pressed her face into her husband's shoulder to avoid anyone seeing the Avatar crying. She desperately wanted to keep her reputation up. Even on the empty deck of the ship.

"She'll be happy." Mako assured her. Her father, however, would likely murder him. Tonraq had made it very clear that Mako was not to get Korra pregnant until they were thirty, and here they were in their mid-twenties, expecting a baby. Mako only hoped Senna could protect him. Or Korra. At six months pregnant, she'd be a wonderful shield from her father.

"You love me, right?"

Her voice was almost so quiet he didn't hear her, and when he realized what she'd said he was too stunned to respond immediately and she looked up at him with a frown. "Yes." Mako choked. "Of course I do, Korra, why would you think I wouldn't?"

"I'm fat."

"You're _pregnant_." Mako sighed heavily. "You aren't fat, that's our baby."

"It doesn't feel like baby." Korra scowled. "I feel fat."

"You aren't."

Luckily their argument was interrupted by the arrival at the docks and Korra was buzzing with energy. She pulled her coat tighter around her body, self conscious about her pregnancy and the fact that her parents didn't know yet. There hadn't been time to send a message; it would've had to go on the ship they were currently on anyway.

"Come on." Mako held Korra's hand while he had their bag slung over the opposite shoulder. She had gotten suddenly silent, terrified of her parent's opinion of their child. "They love you." Mako murmured softly as they approached her parent's small, ice covered, home. "I love you."

"I love you too." Korra breathed and squeezed his hand before pushing the door open. "Mom."

Senna turned with a beaming smile and ran for her daughter, pulling her immediately into her arms. "Oh, Korra, you're home!" She beamed at her daughter and brushed stray hairs from her face. "Oh you're beautiful!" Senna looked to her son-in-law. "You've been taking good care of my girl for me." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

Then again, Korra looked amazing because she was six months pregnant. "I do what I love." Mako hugged her and glanced around for Tonraq, apparently obviously.

"He's hunting." Senna laughed. "Good thing too, we weren't expecting dinner guests."

"Week long dinner guests?" Korra grinned at her mother. "I'll try to get two out of you, but Mako can't miss too much work." She flashed him a grin and her hands were itching to touch her belly.

"Of course." Senna laughed. "Come on, pull your jacket off." She motioned to her daughter and Mako reached for Korra's first, helping her remove it. Senna turned her back and looked back the moment Korra's jacket was off and her condition was obvious. "Oh my God."

"Mom…"

"Oh baby." Senna's tears were paired with a beaming smile and she rushed forward to hug her daughter. "Oh that's why you're here." She laughed and held him closely. "Oh, my baby." She was crying, holding Korra, who was also crying, leaving Mako to stand awkwardly with Korra's coat.

He moved to hang it on the wall and shrugged off his before moving back to the women, leading them for a couch. Korra had been on her feet for much too long. He was dispatched to make tea for his wife and mother-in-law while Senna demanded details about her grandchild from the due date to Korra's health to if they thought it was a boy or a girl.

Mako was sure it was a girl and Korra swore she'd rather have a boy so she could have a chance to get along with her baby.

He'd barely gotten the tea finished when Tonraq returned and demanded to hug his baby girl, who couldn't stand without assistance. He turned green.

Mako gripped the wall tightly as if that would help him from falling over.

"Are you taking care of her?" Tonraq demanded. Korra frowned and opened her mouth to defend him, but Senna stopped her with a touch and a shake of her head.

"Yes sir." Mako straightened, letting his pride take over the fear of his father-in-law. "I'll always take care of her and my child."

"I believe I told you to wait until you were thirty."

"You know Korra, she can't wait." He glanced at his wife who looked thankfully amused instead of annoyed at him for the comment. Pregnancy hormones were a whole new beast to deal with.

Tonraq looked very torn for a moment before moving to his little girl and pulling her into his arms, a hand on her pregnant belly. "I didn't want to be grandpa so soon."

"You should've told me that, Dad." Korra beamed up at him. "Mako was all for waiting."

"I wish you had." Tonraq muttered.

"I don't." Korra rubbed her belly with a smile.

**Korra**

"Mom?" Korra approached her mother the next morning feeling uncomfortable.

"Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm ok." Korra shrugged. "I just…" insecurities rose rapidly, "I want him to move." She moaned and rubbed her belly.

"He hasn't?" Senna registered surprise as she touched her daughter's stomach gently, sliding her hand down over all the curves of her grandchild. "That's odd, usually they should by now."

"The healers said I was being impatient." Korra scowled and rubbed her belly. "But I just want him to move."

"He'll move when he's ready." Senna adopted the pronoun her daughter used. Even Mako called the baby a 'he' despite his belief that it was a girl. Mako who was presently helping his father-in-law get some dinner for the four of them and likely being interrogated. "Have you been moving? That might get him to move once you're at rest."

"I move all the time!" Korra moaned. "I move so much, Mako tries to tie me to my chair to keep me still."

"Maybe, he's just a calm personality." Senna beamed at her daughter. "Reminiscent of her grandmother."

"Maybe." Korra smiled at her mother. "But I'd prefer he move anyway."

"He will, and then you'll get so annoyed with him dancing on your bladder, you'll want him out so badly."

"I'm getting vibes that I may have done that to you." Korra grinned at her mother with all the mischief she had in her. Which was a lot.

"Oh a little." Senna rubbed her grandchild. "Have you gotten your nursery ready?"

"No." Korra felt like she was shrinking into the chair she was perched on.

"You'll have to get the right size of crib." Senna commented. "Make sure you have enough cloths for burping and for breast feeding."

"What? No." Korra frowned. "I don't want to." She shook her head uncomfortably. She didn't know any of this; she didn't know how to be a good Mom. She had barely become a successful Avatar, why the fuck would she be a good Mom? "Mom I can't do this." She was shaking and gripped her mother's arm. Senna looked at her with wide eyes. "I can't be a good Mom! I'm the Avatar, I'm so busy, he's a cop, we're never home and I don't know what babies need and I can't…"

"Stop." Senna grabbed Korra's chin and moved her head so she was looking at her full on. "Calm down, don't get hysterical. You are going to be a wonderful mother. You are passionate, you are caring, your child will only know love from you and Mako." Senna smiled as the tension in her only child's body eased ever so slightly. "As for the baby's needs, you have me to help you, and Pema, she's got four little ones."

"I want to be able to take care of him myself." Korra rubbed her baby nervously. "I just, I don't know what to do."

"After a few days you'll have it down." Senna assured her. "I'd never even held a baby until I held you." She smiled at her daughter. "And you were a unique challenge from the start." She laughed when Korra cracked a smile. "I was terrified for a few days, but your father and I figured out how to take care of you and then it became so routine we didn't have to think about it."

"But what if I screw him up?" Korra's voice was soft.

"You won't." Senna smiled. "Because you already love him so much that you're scared you will, so you'll put in the effort to not."

"That's twisted logic." Korra laughed and felt better immediately. "Can you come after he's born? Please?"

"Of course, I wouldn't miss that for the world." Senna rested her hand on her grandchild. "Your father is going to have to accept this and come with me."

Korra laughed with her mother but stopped dead. "He moved." She whispered. "Oh, Mom, he _moved_." She sat up straighter and rested her hands on her belly and moved her mother's to where she'd felt it just as it came again. "Oh!" Her eyes welled up with tears. "Mom he's real."

It was a ludicrous statement, but Senna smiled, understanding what her daughter meant. "He loves you, Korra." She murmured. "You are all he knows right now, and by taking care of yourself, you take care of him. When he's born, do the same, but Mako gets to help more." Senna kissed Korra's forehead and smiled at her daughter. "Now, come help me make tea, the men should be back soon." She pulled Korra off the couch and the two women went into the kitchen together, marveling over the baby as they went.

**Mako**

His father-in-law had to be the most imposing man on the face of this earth.

So this morning when Tonraq had asked him to go hunting with him to, as he'd put it, get nourishment for his unborn child, Mako had no choice but to accept. And, since he had lived his entire life in a city and didn't know a thing about hunting, Mako could only assume that Tonraq meant to murder him out in the tundra of the South Pole where no one would be able to find his body.

Korra looked at him oddly when he gave her a long kiss good bye and kissed her belly before leaving, but he'd wanted to say good bye.

And now, three hours into this hunting trip, they'd caught nothing, Tonraq hadn't said a word, and Mako was frozen stiff from cold and fear.

"Ever used a spear, City Boy?" He couldn't have been aware that his daughter used that term affectionately with her husband, but the way Tonraq said it made Mako wince.

"No sir." He replied, keeping his voice steady.

"I'd suggest you learn to use one, but you don't need to hunt to feed your child." Tonraq finally looked at him, his blue eyes scrutinizing his son-in-law. Mako had a sneaking suspicion that his father-in-law wouldn't have approved of him if he was the richest man in the world. No one would be good enough for his little girl.

"I will." Mako huddled his limbs into his torso where they waited on a snow drift. He was determined to be a good father to his child. To his and Korra's child. He'd raised Bolin from when the boy was six, but he'd never had an infant to take care of. Not his own child, borne of the love he had for its mother. "I know she doesn't necessarily need me," Mako found himself talking, "But I'm going to do everything I can for my baby."

"She'll need you." Tonraq looked at him seriously. "One person shouldn't care for an infant alone."

"When you had Korra, were you nervous?" Mako felt odd asking his father-in-law this. It was the kind of question he should ask his father, but he'd lost his father at age eight. Now, in his twenties he desperately needed his father to help him figure out how to be a good father himself. How to love and care for his baby.

"Terrified." Tonraq looked steadily at his son-in-law. "I'd never seen such a tiny little person before, and she was mine. I had to take care of her." A smile grew on his face as he looked off toward where the snow drifts met the skyline. "But she's so worth it. She's so full of life and even when it was hard, I love her."

Mako smiled. "I hope I'm as good a father as you are." He muttered, half hoping Tonraq wouldn't hear it.

"Do you remember your father well?" Tonraq asked quietly and Mako nodded at the rational question.

"More than Bo does, I was eight." Mako leaned back, forgetting how cold he was with the red scarf securely around his neck. "He loved us, I know that." He smiled. "He'd always play with us; get Mom smiling when times were tough."

"You miss him." It was an observation and not a question. Mako just nodded slowly. "I don't hate you." Tonraq sighed. "I hate that my little girl grew up and isn't my little girl anymore." The admission seemed to be killing him, so he stood. "And now I'm going to teach you how to take care of her." He moved toward the herd Caribu-deer that had come over the ridge.

After a few hours with his father-in-law Mako was no longer afraid for his life. He was, however, queasy, and wanted nothing more than to go back to Republic City where he could eat noodles and stir fry and not have to kill his dinner and could just go to Narook's and order it. But at least Tonraq had looked impressed when he used his firebending to cook the rather large animal. And Korra had smiled while she ate it, rolling her eyes as if it was the best thing she'd eaten in weeks. It probably was, she'd been craving South Pole food since her pregnancy started.

**Couple**

The morning they were set to leave the South Pole Mako woke first.

Usually when they were there he was cold and stayed in bed as long as possible, but today he'd woken before his wonderful wife. She was asleep, on her back oddly, the baby didn't usually let her sleep like that, but it was nice to see her so calm and peaceful. This trip, though it had been hard on both of them at first, was a good idea. He and Korra were going home more prepared to be parents, at least more than they had been before.

"Hey." Korra slid her hand over and smiled up at him. Mako leaned his head in his hand and peered down at her. "You're relaxed."

"I was just thinking the same about you." Mako grinned and rested his hand on her belly.

"Talking to my Mom helped." Korra sighed happily. "You don't seem terrified of my Dad."

"We have an understanding." He snorted and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "They're going to come, right?"

"As soon as he's born." Korra rubbed her stomach with a smile, reaching up with her other hand to rest on his cheek. "I love you, Mako." She was still half asleep and her filter was off. "You're going to be such a wonderful father." His lack of answer had her opening her eyes and frowning. "Mako…"

"I'm happy." He promised and wiped his eyes before leaning in and kissing her forehead. "I love you too. You're going to be a wonderful mother."

"Really?" Korra's eyes opened all the way and she looked up at him.

"Really." Mako grinned. "I mean we'll have a lot of help. Your mother, Pema, between the two of them I doubt anyone will let us mess him up." Korra laughed and snuggled closer to him.

"Can I sleep more?" She mumbled and he grinned, curling up around her.

She was asleep in seconds, but he lay awake, smiling when his baby started to move in her stomach. The little life that was starting to move to say that he was there. But they already knew he was there, because they already loved him more than either could really understand. They didn't know how to be good parents, but they had good teachers. Senna, Tonraq, Pema, and even Tenzin would likely help them take care of their child and let them know they're loved by so many people. Especially by their Mom and Dad.

Mom and Dad.

Mako buried his face in Korra's hair and drifted off to sleep grinning about their new titles.


End file.
